Karnataka: Six arrested for manipulating int'l calls

Bengaluru: Six members were arrested by the police on charges of converting international calls from Middle-East countries to local calls, causing loss to the state exchequer.

The accused persons also reportedly made threatening calls to people.

The police have seized 16 SIM box devices, 2 SIP trunk call devices, 9 primary rate interface (PRI) devices, 5 laptops, 6 routers, and 205 BSNL SIM cards, which were used by the accused to convert international calls into local calls.

The police busted the racket after conducting raids in Bengaluru and Kerala. Two cases have been registered in this regard in Bengaluru.

The accused operated from the Mahadevapura locality in Bengaluru. They obtained the SIP device from Airtel, which is used in call centres. They had opened a fraud company in the name of Icon Tours and Travels and had taken a landline connection with 180 ports to carry out their nefarious plans, the police said.

Using these devices, the accused converted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls to local GSM calls, the police said.

The accused obtained BSNL SIM cards from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and other states.

(With IANS inputs)